BRAZIL AND AFRICA: GEOPOLITICS, TRADE, AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE SOUTH ATLANTIC

Abstract

OVER THE LAST decade, there has been a resurgence in relations between Brazil and Africa. Though economic and political ties are still limited in size and scope, there has been sufficient expansion to warrant an examination of the trends. The Brazilian intervention in Africa has, for obvious reasons, received far less attention than the Cuban presence in Africa. The essay that follows sketches the evolution of Brazilian foreign policy and documents the build up of a Brazilian presence in Africa. Particular attention is given to Brazil's relations with Nigeria. Brazil's relations with Africa are not treated simply as the product of a sub-imperialism that reflects Brazil's intermediate position in a hierarchy of economic and power relations that extends from the United States at the centre to an African periphery. Sub-imperialism does not give Brazilian capital accumulation and state policy sufficient autonomy from multinational capital or US policy. Likewise, a simple dependency perspective fails to comprehend the dynamics of the Brazilian political economy. Brazil's policies and potential role in Africa need to be related to Brazilian national development, to relations with other potential continental powers like Nigeria and South Africa, as well as to imperialist rivalry and global capitalist development. Some of these issues will be taken up in conclusion. The validity of some commonly held ideas about 'South South' relations will also be questioned. Under the Quadros-Goulart administrations (1961-1964), nationalist demands for a more active and independent foreign policy brought a semblance of change to Brazil's African policy.' Brazilian diplomacy began a largely symbolic shift from a subservience to Portuguese colonial interests, which had been formalized in the 1953 Luso-Brazilian Treaty of Friendship and Consultation, to support for African nationalist aspirations. A number of factors could support Brazil's claim to leadership of a tropical, Atlantic world. These included its geographic position, a large black population, the absence of overt racial strife, and strong cultural and linguistic ties with Africa. Another strand in Brazilian thought was provided by the writings of Gilberto Freyre, who expounded the idea of